The Spirit of Courage
by thenumbertwentyseven
Summary: Pitch Black, Lord of Nightmares, is rising after his long years of hiding. Izzat, a lighthearted Spirit of Courage, is called to help protect the children. At first, she dives right in, but what if Jack's bitterness, North's prejudice, and her own instincts screaming can't stop her from seeing the good in the so-called Boogeyman? (Sorry if the summary is bad, will be changed soon.)


**AN:** Hey y'all! Haven't done a fanfic in a while, but I got this idea in my head and couldn't let it go. Not all of it is written out, but I guess I've got the general outline to go off of. Rise of the Guardians is a great movie, and one of my favorite fanfics happens to be a RotG one so I wanted to put in my little part and hope people enjoyed it.

 _PLEASE NOTE:_ I haven't written a story in a while, and I'm very bad at keeping up with/finding the way to continue the ones I write, so I apologize in advance if the writing is bad or I never update. I have run this through Grammarly, but please feel free to point out any writing mistakes. Constructive criticism is also appreciated!

 _ **DISCLAIMER:**_ I do not own Rise of the Guardians or any of its characters, and the name Izzat and its meaning I borrowed from An Ember in the Ashes (great book).

Enjoy!

* * *

 **Prolouge**

I truly love my job. I mean, it doesn't pay much (more like it doesn't pay at all) and nobody actually believes in me, but still.

Soaring through the air at night, my wings singing in the wind. The heat of my fire as it envelops the children, giving them bravery.

I could do this for another hundred years, more even, without a thought.

Even dealing with _him_ is worth the stars in their eyes.

That monster of fear and cowardice, the embodiment of everything I protect the children from.

Pitch Black.

I can see him now as I tail behind him through the dark, my presence leaving courage and warmth where his leaves nothing but the blackness of night and the terror of nightmares. I know better than to get too close as I comfort shivering children. One nasty run-in was just enough for me thank you (long story).

Then the dark moves away, and I'm dipping my wings to get into the house, smirking as I see Sandman's telltale gold begin to seep through the small town. Whatever horrifying dreams Pitch comes up with, he's got nothing on Sandy's comforting light.

That's when I slip into the house, and I see my first terrific nightmare of the night.

 _Wait a second_ , my mind takes a double take, and I force myself to look back underneath the bed of the small trembling form. You can't SEE nightmares. Pitch deals in dreams and feelings of fear, nothing is actually _corporal_ in his line of work. He's like me. He _should_ be like me

 _Then why are there eyes underneath the bed._

Every cell in my body, all the instincts I've gathered in the past century scream at me to summon my knives, my bow, my bare hands, anything to attack and get rid of this _thing_ creeping out from under the child's bed -

 _The child._ I remember and my hands automatically freeze from where they were creeping into position. The kid may not believe in me, but who knows what influence the thing has on him.

I can't risk the kid being hurt.

The monster is still creeping out to me, it's glowing yellow eyes narrowing, analyzing. I begin to slowly back out the window, a sigh of relief escaping me as the thing follows and the child breathes easily once again.

I've just unfurled my wings to get into the sky when it attacks.

I'm off the roof and crouched on the street before I can think, my fiery eyes following the creature when it darts after with inhuman speed, jumping through the air like a desert hare of death.

My knives appear in my hands as I catch a good look at the creature for the first time in the street lights. It looks… almost like a horse. If a horse was pitch black all over with glowing yellow eyes and skin like quicksand. I have no clue what it really is, I've never seen anything like it before.

I'm torn out of my thoughts by the sound of its hooves scraping against the asphalt as it charges at me. Instincts kicking in, I flip away and bring down my knives.

 _It obviously underestimates me_ I think as it goes sprawling. I'm beside it in a second, not knowing how long it'll stay down or if I've killed it yet.

Crouching next to the head and reaching out a hand, I notice it IS made out of sand. It reminds me eerily of… Sandy's sand. And just like that the horse disintegrates, the black sand floating away in a cold breeze of winter.

I tensed and turned around, having been alive long enough to feel the differences in a regular wind and those caused by a certain Winter Spirit or Lord of Fear.

And of course, there he was, thick tendrils of shadow and smoke trailing behind him and enough of those demon horses to ride an army into battle.

The edges of my vision blurred red with anger at the infuriating smirk set on that corpse-like face. But though his face was cool and collected, almost amused even, I could see those amber eyes burning with rage.

I blinked in surprise, the red fading, then raised a smirk of my own. Hands on my hips I sauntered toward him, ignoring the nervous whinnies of the Nightmares. "Pitch Black," I stated, coming to a stop a few feet away from him.

"Long time no see huh? I'll admit I knew the Lord of Fear was working on something, but I never actually thought you would get anywhere." I smiled innocently as his perfect façade disappeared for a moment, his face contorting in anger, but it was gone a second later.

"I think we can all agree that title doesn't apply to me anymore. Lord of Nightmares would be the correct term." he corrected me with a voice smooth as silk, sweeping a hand to the creatures flanking him,

"And besides, _Izzat,"_ I bristled at his use of my full name, arms crossing as he leaned forward, "you only ever caught exactly what I wanted you to."

I opened my mouth to retort but was immediately distracted by the new colors rippling across Pitch's face. Startled, I whipped a wing to my side, eyes widening as I saw the brown feathers freckled with the shining colors of rainbows.

Like the northern lights.

Pitch figured out what was happening a second after I did, barely having time to snap at his underlings to "Stop her you fools!" before I was in the air, my hand already throwing the snow globe and my mouth muttering "North's Workshop". I could hear the phantom echo of screeching monsters as I tumbled into the globe room.

* * *

 _I have so many good memories of this place._

 _Tooth taught me how to fly like the wind itself._

 _Sandy taught me how to use my abilities to influence the dreams and feelings of children._

 _Bunnymund taught me to never give up on a difficult child, how to get past the hate and hopelessness._

 _And North taught me to see the good in everyone, to dedicate my life to children and how to fight or defend them._

 _For I am Izzat, the Guardian Spirit of Courage, protector and defender, comforter and encourager._

 _And that's all there is to it._


End file.
